The board is in contact with a GIS Analyst from the Geodetic Unit at Mn/DOT in St. Paul. They are looking at starting a project that would be used to catalog and recover over 65,000 survey marks throughout the state and are wondering what kind of interest geocachers might have in helping with this.

Put simply, he would like to know how many geocachers are looking for benchmarks and how many would be interested in helping out by going to an additional website to log your "find" in the interest of helping the state out.

So-- do you benchmark? If yes, would you be willing to "log" it once again on a separate website?_________________The Lucid Network (tm)-- More Bars in More Places!

What exactly are they looking for from us? Just verification that the BM is still where it should be, as described?

It used to be that a large number of the BMs were loggable at gc.com, but over time that percentage has dropped as gc.com hasn't kept their database up to date. Eventually I quit looking for them (quit stopping for BM signs when I saw them) as everything I looked at wasn't on the site, so there was absolutely no point in looking at them.

I wouldn't mind reporting back to the state through a simple website that I found one, but I'm not clear what data they are looking for regarding them. I doubt I would pull over to find one or spend time just searching them out, but wouldn't have a problem with reporting what I came across.

Keep in mind everything is very preliminary at this stage. They are in talks with Detroit Lakes geocachers to discuss project feasibility and we will know more after their December 11th meeting.

Though details were not made clear to me via email, I would guess that they will be looking for coordinates and verification though this is just my guess. I have directed the contact to this forum post to better facilitate gauging levels of interest._________________The Lucid Network (tm)-- More Bars in More Places!

we just started looking more into benchmarks and we would be glad to help out.. going to another website to log them would be no problem with us_________________Got GAS... (geocaching addiction syndrome)

The board is in contact with a GIS Analyst from the Geodetic Unit at Mn/DOT in St. Paul. They are looking at starting a project that would be used to catalog and recover over 65,000 survey marks throughout the state and are wondering what kind of interest geocachers might have in helping with this.

Put simply, he would like to know how many geocachers are looking for benchmarks and how many would be interested in helping out by going to an additional website to log your "find" in the interest of helping the state out.

So-- do you benchmark? If yes, would you be willing to "log" it once again on a separate website?

I will keep my answer simple and say I would be interested..._________________You may only be young once...but I will be immature forever!!!

Sure, why not? I don't know that I would go out of my way to look for one, but if I was in the area I would give it a shot._________________"We never seek things for themselves-what we seek is the very seeking of things"-Pascal

Trust me, these are my initials, so I've heard every BM joke there is. That's why I always include my middle initial.

I was only told (at an event) that it was firstbass (as in base) versus firstbass (as in fish)...
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You secret with the initials is safe with me...I won't tell a soul!!!_________________You may only be young once...but I will be immature forever!!!